Manchester City midfielder Phil Foden is now Europe's most expensive player to buy, according to the CIES Football Observatory, which recently published its latest ranking of players in Europe's big five leagues with the highest estimated transfer value. How much would someone who wanted Foden have to put up? $232 million.
As the world heals from the pandemic, pick-up matches are on their way back as well. Pick-up matches exemplify all the best parts of soccer: intense rivalries, healthy competition and the opportunity to sharpen your skills.
On Tuesday, England's 33-man preliminary squad was reduced to its final 26 members for the upcoming Euro 2020 tournament.
The likes of Jesse Lingard, James Ward-Prowse and Ollie Watkins were cut, while Manchester United's Mason Greenwood withdrew due to injury:
England's final 26-man squad, with the following seven missing out...
Aaron Ramsdale
Ben White
Ben Godfrey
James Ward-Prowse
Jesse Lingard
Ollie Watkins
Mason GreenwoodCorrect decisions?
It was a foggy Saturday morning soccer match and I was defending the goal spectating the action going on the field. I had stopped a few shots earlier in the match and my confidence was quickly rising. Thoughts raced through my head, realizing that I was about to officially record my first clean sheet of the season. Then as clear as day the ball was passed to me, and as I went to stop it with my foot it slowly but surely skipped right below my outstretched foot and into the awaiting net behind me.
There was nothing quite like a Saturday morning in 2009. I’d run downstairs to the family computer and be glued to the screen for hours watching soccer videos. Eleven years later these nostalgic soccer videos hit different.
We may not be able to turn back time, but these videos will make you feel like time has reversed. Perhaps it’s the horrible video quality, or maybe the feeling of childhood gives the sensation of going back in time.
On Monday Gregg Berhalter announced the 23 players that will represent the USMNT in Denver at the CONCACAF Nations League finals. The list comprised of four players from Major League Soccer and the other 19 scattered across Europe.
Here's the full roster.
Goalkeepers:
Zack Steffen (Manchester City)
Ethan Horvath (Club Brugge)
David Ochoa (Real Salt Lake)
Defenders:
John Brooks (Wolfsburg)
Tim Ream (Fulham)
Matt Miazga (Anderlecht)
“Deep, dark secrets” may be a slight stretch, but there’s an answer for why do players cover their mouths when talking. The players in question are sometimes discussing topics that they wish to stay private, hence the mouth covering.
The phenomenon of players covering their mouths isn’t only seen in soccer. In nearly every sport, opposing players and teammates can be seen having covered-mouth discussions during and after the game.
Has an American player won the Champions League? Yes. (Come May 29, 2021.)
It hadn’t happened before (although Ali Krieger, Gina Lewandowski and Alex Morgan have won the UWCL), but with Christian Pulisic’s Chelsea playing Zack Steffen’s Manchester City in the 2020-21 Champions League Final, the answer to that question is now a foregone conclusion.
There will obviously be some hotshots among us who’ll question the contributions of the USMNT stars. Steffen is Ederson’s understudy and only started City’s final group match against Marseille, keeping a clean sheet.
Every Premier League fan has those few players they believe should be banished from the league, whether it be a starter on their team that regularly makes costly errors, or the bench player who has as many first team appearances as loan spells.
When it comes to evaluating the worst players of the Premier League, one soon realizes there is a problematic paradox that arises. I refer to it as the mediocrity paradox:
The year that was 2020 disrupted a lot of the financial models for Major League Soccer and resulted in a new Collective Bargaining Agreement ratified back in February, but the 26th season of MLS is now underway while looking largely similar to previous editions, particularly with regards to the MLS Designated Players list 2021.